Tragic stories have been emerging from the Gaza Strip where civilians every day are becoming the collateral damage of an all-out war between its ruler Hamas and Israel. Yesterday, the family of an Al Jazeera journalist was killed in an Israeli air strike. The host who announced the news on the Qatar-based network was seen choking up live on television.
The wife and two children of its Arabic-language channel's Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza strip.
"We note this breaking news that we transmit on the Al Jazeera network. A number of family members of our colleague, Wael Al Dahdouh were killed, including his wife, son and daughter," the anchor said.
Al-Dahdouh was "reporting the bombing that targeted the area where a number of his family members were martyred," the anchor, fighting back tears, said.
In images and videos on social media, Al-Dahdouh was shown mourning over the bodies of his wife and children at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The journalist's family were staying in a temporary home after evacuating Gaza City following Israel's warning for residents to move south as its forces intensified strikes targeting Hamas.
"This is the safe zone the occupation (Israeli) army was talking about," Al-Dahdouh said on Al Jazeera.
"The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of his wife, son and daughter, while the rest of his family is buried under the rubble," the Al Jazeera earlier said in a statement.
Israel has been pounding the narrow Palestinian territory in response to a massive cross-border attacks by Hamas operatives on October 7 that Israeli officials say have killed more than 1,400 people.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 people in Gaza, a rise of more than 700 since Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
